Surprising factoids about short-lived Claudette

Tropical Storm Claudette looked sheared and disorganized as it moved northeast off the coast of Canada. (Credit: NOAA)

A weakening Tropical Storm Claudette was forecast to move away from the Gulf Stream today over colder waters, the National Hurricane Center said. That plus stronger wind shear over the storm should cause it to lose its tropical characteristics later today, according to forecasters.

It’s expected to dissipate as it approaches Newfoundland, they said.

Claudette was the second-farthest north that a tropical storm has formed in the Atlantic so early in the season, according to Eric Blake at the National Hurricane Center. The farthest north was Tropical Storm Chris in 2012, he said in a Twitter post.

Daniel Brown, another hurricane forecaster at the NHC noted in a tweet: “NHC has discussed three disturbances in the Atlantic Tropical Weather Outlook this season. All have developed, which may be a first.”

Claudette formed exactly one month before the third named storm forms, on average in the Atlantic Basin, based on data from 1966 to 2009. The third named storm forms, on average, on Aug. 13 and the first hurricane forms, on average, on Aug. 10.

Last year the third named storm, Cristobal, didn’t appear until Aug. 23. In 2013, Tropical Storm Chantal formed on July 7 and Tropical Storm Chris (which later became a hurricane) formed on June 18, 2012.

Note that in the last hurricane season to occur in the midst of an El Niño, 2009, the third-named storm, which was also Claudette, didn’t form until Aug. 16.

Another interesting nugget: During the powerhouse El Niño in 1997, the third named storm of the season — again, Tropical Storm Claudette — formed in a similar location and on exactly the same date, July 13. Tropical Storm Danny formed that year in the northern Gulf of Mexico on July 17 and became a Category 1 hurricane on July 19. It made landfall in Alabama.

There were eight named storms in 1997, the same number forecast for this year by Colorado State University in June.

Environment Canada said few impacts were expected from this year’s Claudette and that gale force winds were expected to remain offshore. “By the time it gets to Newfoundland winds will have diminished below gale force,” the agency said in a statement this morning. “They will be strongest over Southern and Eastern Newfoundland on Wednesday.”